The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit filed by a county resident who spent more than a decade in prison for murder.

An attorney for former police Lt. Eric Calhoun asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit filed against him by Daniel Newman because Newman failed to show that the officer knowingly swore to false facts in the affidavit that led to his arrest for the 1992 murder of a Hamburg Township man.

Calhoun's attorney also sought the dismissal of allegations of malicious prosecution because "probable cause existed for Newman's arrest" and Calhoun is "entitled to qualified immunity."

The Cincinnati court ruled in his favor in December.

Newman was initially sentenced to life without parole for the February 1992 shooting death of Harvey Chappelear, who has been described as a "drug dealer who was an acquaintance of Newman's."

However, that was set aside and he was subsequently resentenced to 40-80 years on a second-degree murder conviction.

At trial, prosecutors argued Newman, clad in a ski mask, executed a hit on Chappelear. Prosecutors argued Chappelear was shot "not less than eight times" with a 9 mm handgun — which was later shown to be Newman's — and killed during a robbery at his home.

Newman's lawsuit claimed police recovered a pair of work boots from his home that were "easily determined to be much larger than the size 6-9 shoe print" found at the murder scene and at the location where a gym bag containing the murder weapon was found.

He also alleged that his physical description did not match witness reports, nor was there "forensic evidence linking" him to Chappelear's murder.

A day after the slaying, two men discovered a gym bag behind a tree on Brighton Road that contained a jean jacket, a 9 mm handgun, a sawed-off shotgun with tape wrapped around the grip, a ski mask-type hat, two walkie-talkies and gloves. Subsequent analysis "strongly suggested" that some of the items belonged to Newman and that it had been used in Chappelear's murder, according to court records.

However, Newman's lawsuit blamed another man, whom he alleged "failed a polygraph exam regarding his involvement with the murder." In that polygraph exam, the other man was asked questions about whether he murdered Chappelear, was present during the murder or planned the murder, according to the lawsuit.

Newman also received a two-year consecutive sentence for a felony firearm conviction, according to his lawsuit. His conviction was overturned in November 2008 when the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit ruled his conviction was unconstitutional.

Newman filed the lawsuit in 2012, initially listing Hamburg Township and a second narcotics officer as defendants. The federal court in Detroit dismissed the township and the second officer from the lawsuit in April, but found that Calhoun was not entitled to qualified governmental immunity.